Garlic: a legendary plant

Hello, Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. For thousands of years, garlic was among the most used medicines in the world. I don’t know how but historians think people have used it medicinally for seven thousand years! There are references to the Egyptians feeding it to the people building the pyramids with the belief it would give them strength and keep them from getting sick. It originated in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains and was obviously able to survive those frigid winters. As people learned about it and started growing it in the Mediterranean areas and beyond, different cultivars were selected, and today we choose from hard neck garlic grown in colder places to soft neck varieties, the ones we can grow here in South Carolina. The medicinal qualities come from eating fresh garlic, not cooked in recipes.